There was no question about the weekend's major tactical switch. At half-time at Upton Park on Saturday afternoon, Sir Alex Ferguson removed the left-back Patrice Evra, who had endured a poor opening period, and introduce the Mexican forward Javier Hernández. This left United with only three defenders, and so Ferguson instructed Ryan Giggs to move to left-back. Having been 2-0 down at half-time, United stormed back to win 4-2. The switch was not the sole reason for United's recovery – and they had dominated the first period anyway, simply defending poorly and giving away unnecessary penalties. However, the chalkboard shows that Giggs was more of an attacking presence than Evra and also more effective with his crossing – and this graphic does not include his assist for Hernández's goal, which is recorded as a blocked shot.

Giggs also offered United a calm, reliable passing route out of defence – something they desperately needed, with neither Nemanja Vidic nor Chris Smalling having a good game with the ball at their feet. Ferguson has been impressed with the way Smalling has deputised for Rio Ferdinand in recent weeks, but while his defensive work has been excellent, he has a long way to go before becoming as assured in possession as the former England captain. Smalling played too many wayward, ambitious passes when under little pressure at Upton Park, and ended the game with a 62% pass completion rate – the last time Ferdinand played a Premier League game, against Aston Villa, his was 83%.

After both Ashley Young and Stewart Downing gave impressive displays for England in midweek, they were back to help Aston Villa fight relegation at Goodison Park on Saturday. Like in the game against Ghana, they were fielded as 'inverted' wingers, on the opposite side to their natural foot, as has been common over the past couple of seasons. The chalkboard shows that Young is more likely to come inside early from his wide position, while Downing stays much closer to the touchline. Still, they both provided a stream of balls into the box – 24 in all – and each grabbed an assist for fellow England international Darren Bent.

Bolton's signing of the centre-back David Wheater in January went rather unnoticed, but the former Middlesbrough man has turned out to be an excellent acquisition. After a superb display against Manchester United in Bolton's previous contest, he put in another good performance at the weekend, even as his side lost 2-1 to Birmingham. He won an impressive 16 from 18 challenges throughout the game. Bolton were dominant throughout the pitch in terms of tackles – they finished with a tackle success rate of 68%, compared to Birmingham's 41%.